Handwriting on the wall

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Thank you, sir. You may be seated. Brother Joseph just loves me. This has been a great day for me. And I met many of the fine people here in this great city.
And ... [Someone adjusts the microphone.] Thank you. No, that's all right. And I was in a restaurant eating today, and some lady come up and she said, "This is my opportunity to get to shake your hand, Brother Branham." She introduced me to her husband and she said, "I sure enjoyed that message last night." I know there's meat and grits, or love me or something here, from all that.

2 And the lady invited me to her house for dinner. I hope she's here tonight. Sister, I sure appreciate that, very much. And to see that you have love in the hearts to invite me to your home, that's very nice.
Now I want to say that all the messages is on tape. My good friend here, and associate, Mr. Gene Goad and Mr. Leo Mercier, they are the tape boys of the meetings, who has them here, and they're at the concession stand ... or, the book stand, rather, with the pictures of the Angel of the Lord. Sometime when you're not holding healing services, we don't very much announce those, you see, but they are there for those who want them---the books and the pictures, and so forth.
Now it's my privilege tonight to be here again and to speak to you from His Word, His precious Holy Word. And I have thought since last evening, trying to say how far back the church was getting, I thought I would try to explain tonight in my way of doing it, how close the coming of the Lord is. And my purpose in these messages is to awaken the church, that we must be ready whenever He comes. That's the main thing. And no matter where or what time He comes, let's be ready, is the main thing.

3 You know there were virgins that went out to meet Him. And five were still virgins, but were foolish virgins that didn't keep oil in their lamps. And though they were virgins, just the same as the others, they were not permitted to the wedding supper. So far be it from any people here tonight to be included, so they would be excluded from the presence of the Lord ... included in that group of the virgins with no oil in their lamps.
Billy keeps telling me that many people are asking him about prayer cards, to be praying for the sick. Why, I suppose in each meeting they're praying for the sick. And just as being late tonight, there was ministers that had some sick laying out here in the back to be prayed for when I come in.

4 Now, I was just thinking it to be just night speaking was all I was to do. I didn't know I was to pray for the sick, also. However, if the people request me to pray for the sick, well, I'll be glad to do it. See, it just ... I don't know. I was just thinking of this being a convention and speaking as just the evening speaker. However, you might consult your board, or directors, or whatever it is; we will pray for the sick if you wish that to be done.
Now tonight I wish to read from the book of Daniel tonight. But before we do so, let us bow our heads just a moment for a word of prayer.

5 O great and eternal God, who brought again the Lord Jesus from the dead, the great shepherd of the flock, and has raised Him up from the dead and He is alive tonight, living with us and in us, energizing our lives that we might walk upright, soberly, and just in this present day and generation, being written epistles read of all men. And we pray God, that You will send His presence so greatly among us tonight, that if there happens to be sinners in our midst, that they will be ashamed of theirself, of putting off His grace and mercy that's been so generously given unto them, that they might come tonight and accept Him as their own personal Savior.

6 We would ask tonight, Lord, that You would shake Your church as never before, that we might know the hour that we're living. For truly in last evening's reading we find that this church age was to be a lukewarm, just beginning to get into the world. And the vine of formalism growing around the church and choking out the spiritual life of the church. So, God, tonight, send in the sickle and the grubbing hoe, and cut out all the weeds that's choking out the church. All the great spiritual blessings of the church that it deserves, and that Jesus has died that it might receive, may it come a hundred fold tonight, a great shower of His blessings upon the people, as we reverently wait, Lord.
And as we open Thy Word---knowing that it is the Word of life, and it's God Himself, painted on a page---we would ask that You would send the Spirit to the heart of Your servant, Lord, and get a context that would be just appropriate for this hour. Hear the prayer of Your servants, Lord, as we pray together, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and for His glory. Amen.

7 Daniel 5:25:
This is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
We are confronting something. There is not a bit of doubt in any heart here, but what there is something that's fixing to take place. And we Christians and the timepiece, that the world has not got the answer to this day. Science hasn't got the answer to this day. And the most pitiful thing and part of it, the church hasn't got it, when we ought to be the place where people can come and find these things. But we have drifted away.

8 Now in every age, at the junction of each age there's always been warnings before judgment. And if people spurns warnings, there's nothing left but judgment. There's only two things: mercy and judgment; and when you spurn mercy, judgment has to come automatically.

9 And anyone could look upon the streets, and read the newspapers, and listen to the radio. And we all are aware that something is wrong. And being that it is wrong, God's Bible never leaves us without an answer to these things. And to see the condition our nation has got into, we know that there cannot be anything left but judgment to us. And I say this statement without any apology, "If God lets the United States of America, our lovely country, home, get by without judgment, He will be duty bound to resurrect Sodom and Gomorrah and apologize for burning them up. That's right. For we're guilty of the same sins.

10 God loves sinners, but hates his sin. And so you see, God has to act the same every time. He cannot act one way at a certain time, and that same kind of a crisis rise, His action on the first has to be on the second the same way, or He acted wrong when He acted in the first place.
We are mortals, and we're finite, mind. And He's infinite. Therefore, we get smarter and more educated as the days go on, and the generations rise and falls. But God was perfect to begin with! He does not get any smarter, because He was infinite. And then if the infinite God was called on the scene to act, and the way He acted the first time, it will have to be His decision every time when the same crisis arrives.

11 Therefore, if a man was a sinner, and God was called on the scene by the sinner to save Him, and God had mercy and saved that sinner; the next sinner comes, He's got to save him, or He did wrong when He saved the first sinner.
And when a sick man came to God for mercy, and God granted that sick man healing of his body; when the second sick man comes, He's got to grant the same, or He acted wrong when He granted the first man healing.
So if sin was to be judged by God, and He pronounced judgment because of sin, when that sin arises again, He's got to judge it again or He did wrong by judging it in the first place. So when Sodom and Gomorrah, and their sins was judged thus, then if America is committing the same sins, God has got to give this nation the same judgment, or He did wrong when He judged Sodom.

12 And at the junction of each age, we've had several junctions: time when time runs out, man's ability fails. And as we would notice, in the antediluvian destruction... Now I just want to set a little background for what I want to bring to you. In the antediluvian world, after Cain and Abel, and then Seth was raised up to take Abel's place, representing the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Just One. Man begin to spring out from these two boys.
And if you'll notice, men became wise and smart. But the shrewdness never come through the side of Seth. All the scientists, and the smart, and intelligent, and educated men come through the side of Cain, because they had eat from the tree of knowledge, of course, of good and evil. But the other side was a humble side.

13 And then it came to a place where the world was full of great scientists, and become wicked, yet religious. And there come a junction of time that God had to judge the sin. And when He did... Before His judgment was passed, He sent prophets, angels, supernatural, great signs and wonders, and then destruction.
And at the coming out of the children of Israel, the church had cooled off---they'd got in there to be masters of Egypt and so forth. And there come on the scene, prophets, angels, messages, supernatural---and judgment to Egypt.
In the days of the coming of the Lord Jesus, the church had cooled off again and sin had set in the church. Then there came an angel, and appeared to Zacharias. A prophet came on the scene. Then the supernatural was done. Then judgment to Israel, and she was scattered to the four winds of the world.

14 And, my most beloved friends, we're at another junction! We had fifteen hundred years of dark ages in Catholicism. Along come Martin Luther, cooled off. Along come Wesley, cooled off. And along come the Baptists and cooled off. And along come Pentecost, cooled off ... or, it never went to a cooling off; it got lukewarm!
But just before this great cooling off or lukewarmness of the Pentecostal church, there must come again on the scene the supernatural and prophets and great messages, and the healing of the sick and the raising of the dead. It's God's sign post; we're at the end-time! And the church is lukewarm, just cooling off and going away. It has to be that way. God said it would be that way. But the warning is to "him that has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

15 Now our subject starts tonight with one of these junctions. And that was... Our scene opens up in Babylon. And Babylon appears in the first of the Bible, it appears in the middle of the Bible, and it appears in the last of the Bible. Now there is nothing on earth now but what always has been. It come out of Genesis, every ism. If you will go back and study close, you will find that every ism on the earth today, began in Genesis, because it means "the beginning", "the seed". And all the sin that you see on the earth today, began in Genesis.
And I want to ask you something: "What is sin?" Sin is righteousness perverted. Did you ever think of that? You married men that has wives, and you live with your wife; she is your wife. And she's just as pure and holy as she was before you married her in the sight of God, if you're legally married. But the same act with another woman would be perverting righteousness unto unrighteousness, which would condemn your soul to hell for doing it, yet the same act. All unrighteousness is righteousness perverted. Sickness is health perverted. Death is life perverted. Everything that is, was.

16 And now, Babylon appearing in the first of the Bible, in the middle of the Bible, and in the last of the Bible, it behooves us to kind of study about Babylon. The first, it was built by Nimrod, which was the son of Ham. And it was a great city. And all the round-about cities paid tribute to this great city. And it was like a great organization that all the rest of the churches paid tribute to this one great leadership, headship. And it was founded in the valley of Shinar, which was one of the valleys, one of the greatest richest places in the known world of that day, and the river Euphrates ... Tigris passed above it, and the Euphrates went right through the valley. And this information could be gotten from Hislop's Two Babylons and many of the ancient writers.

17 And as we notice, it was built for the purpose of being predominate, ruler over. God never did intend any city or any man to rule one over the other. We are all the same creatures of God, made in His image and in His likeness.
And this great city was built... Let's take a look at it. It was a hundred and twenty miles around this city. And the walls of this city was eighty feet across the wall. You could run a chariot race around that wall just as hard as a horse could gallop. And every street in the city was some two hundred feet across. Now in those days the cities had very small streets. I've been most of the world, and some of those old cities, like in Norway and so forth, the cities are so small that, well, they can't even get an automobile through the street, because it was a little carriage went through the street.

18 But in those cities, streets of Babylon, they was wide across as this auditorium, practically. And many chariots could come down. And if we notice, as the chariots came in every city, every gate opened up, and they led straight to the palace, which sat in the center of the city.
I was reminded of it not long ago, when I was in Rome. Every road leads to Rome. Every street, looks like, leads to the Vatican. Instead of having a mile post, they had the virgin pulling the Christ child pointing towards the city. But all the city... The streets led right straight up to the palace. And at the door of the palace there was great steps that run down, and the River Euphrates came through the city right in front of the palace.

19 And in this great city there were great walls and great gates that were made of solid brass, some hundred feet high. And I want you to notice, swinging gardens all along those walls, and the city in the center of it had the palace and the River Euphrates running by it: just the pattern of heaven! What was it? It's a perverted heaven that was designed by the devil! And was called first the Gates of Paradise, and later was called Confusion, which means "backslidden."
See, it's the devil that's trying to unite all of the world under one great ecclesiastical head. They've always tried it. And they're making a very good show out of it today.

20 And in this city they had the greatest army, they had the best material that could be gotten from all the world was brought to them, and the whole world paid tribute to this city. And when in such a place as that, all behind the walls, how secure they felt. The best scientists, the best brains that they had, the best chariots, the best horses, the best-dressed soldiers, more to eat, the best-clothed people, and were safe behind such walls!
Isn't that the very beautiful picture of this country: With the best that could be gotten, and the best scientists that could be gotten, the best dressed army that there is.
But then when they got behind these walls, they thought they could live just any way they pleased to do, and would be all right because they were safe.

21 And that's been the attitude of our people in this country, that because we have the best and the greatest and the most powerful army, and the best guns and the best machinery, and the best food, and the best everything, we felt like we were safe! But remember, the God of heaven cannot be closed out by any kind of a wall, whether it be a natural wall or an ecclesiastical wall. God looks down from the heavens and there is nothing that He doesn't know about, or didn't know from the beginning that it would be that way. He's the infinite God.
And when people think they are secure, then sin sets in. If there would be, by chance, those here tonight who are Swiss, I would not want to hurt your feelings, but I just recently come from Switzerland. And oh, you talk about an independent bunch, they are. They haven't had a war for hundreds of years. They haven't got nothing to fight for. So they are just real indifferent. If you'll excuse the street expression: kind of puffy like.
And when it comes Sunday morning, you would think the millennium was on. Of all the sacrilegious carrying-on, bells a-ringing, chimes a-ringing, till you couldn't hear yourself speak on the street hardly. And the worst critics against the Lord Jesus I ever met. Why? They feel like that "There's nothing can bother us."

22 I crossed the line to Germany. Brother, I mean, there was a different people, altogether. They had to duck under buildings. They'd been burnt in streets. They know what war meant! They know what it was to put trust in God, when a rascal like Hitler had led them into that kind of a place, and many of those real genuine Christians in Germany had to pray for every mouthful of food they got. Persecution makes the church strong. And God will strengthen this American church someday, hiding in a bomb shelter somewhere.

23 But I want to tell you something (I will correct that.): There is no bomb shelter for this bomb they got now. It'll blow a hole in the ground a hundred and seventy-five feet deep, a hundred and fifty square miles. If you went a thousand feet in the ground, the concussion of that would break every bone in your body! There's no place to hide down here.
But I want to assure this church tonight that there is a place for the church, and a shelter. It's not made out of steel beneath the ground, but it's made out of feathers. Under His wings, the church will safely take her place and her position. So that's the only hiding place there is. God has so made it, that there is nothing materially we can lay our hands on. It's either trust or perish!

24 Our great nation, as it is a great nation, the greatest in the world. And we're all great in communism. You hear all the programs. And I had the privilege of eating breakfast not long ago with Vice President Nixon. And his whole conversation---all of his talk---was communism. I'm just a little holy-roller preacher; I felt good to sit by his side. But it isn't communism we have to worry about. It isn't the robin that pecks on the apple that hurts it; it's the worm at the core that kills the apple.
And it isn't communism that's hurting America. It's our own rottenness among us, our immorals that's breaking the backbone of this nation. Motherhood is marred, and the church has gone to the dogs. All the great things that we stood for, the great principles and things, has rotted beneath us. So it's our own morals that's killed us, not communism, or any other nation. Sin is a reproach to any nation!

25 Motherhood and great principles like that, is broken when mother's pay a hundred dollars for a little snotty-nose dog (Excuse that expression.) and take it in the house and give it a mother's love, and ride around in her automobile, and practice birth control. Any nation would sink under such stuff as that. And our women allowed to be stripped in the streets, and walk down. Such things as uncensored television cast, of old vulgar, four or five times married women, prostitutes of this nation. And the little girls take them for example!
And our stores are loaded down with Davy Crockett and Lone Ranger. Who was the Lone Ranger? There's ninety percent of the children in this city could tell you more about Davy Crockett than could tell you about Jesus Christ. That's right. Then tell me you fear communism. It's the devil you ought to fear!

26 When the mothers turn them home, let them sit with a baby sitter, and out somewhere in some barroom drinking. And then with the audacity to put her foot on a rail and sing God Bless America. And she's the greatest indebtedment we ever had. I'm American and I love my country, but I believe in real Americanism. Not this stuff we got today, so-called Americanism, it's rotted and decayed right under us. That's where our troubles lay.
That's what's the matter today, because we felt secure! "Why, there's no nation can whip us." That's right. But there's a God who will judge us by His Word and by Jesus Christ someday, and the way we treated Christ. That judgment is at hand! And these junctions, these signs, these wonders and miracles that He's did by the hands of His servants---the Gospel that He's preached through Jack Schuller, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, and many others---and the dead has been raised, and the eyes of the blind's been opened: It is a sign post that we're at the end! Surely, a spiritual people would understand that!

27 And some times I wonder. I was standing, not long ago, here at Joseph Boze's church and having a meeting, and Billy had told me when I come in, he said, "Daddy, last night when Brother Osborn showed his 'Black Gold' film from Africa, they was asked to give in a donation, to help him in his missions." Said, "I just happened to be standing in the audience, and I seen this certain little woman, poorly dressed, a little typical Swede, go down in her pocket and peel off about a hundred dollars and give it in to help Brother Osborn." Said, "I cried, almost. That poor little woman, where she'd get enough money to give that, maybe her meager living?"

28 But to support the Gospel, to try to get to every crack and corner, for the end is at hand. Said, "When I left the building that night, the second night, she said, 'Billy, honey, have you got a prayer card you could give me?'"
He said, "Madam, I have not. See if Gene and Leo has got any left." They didn't have any. He said, "Lady, we haven't got any prayer cards left. They've all been give out."
And she said, "That's all right, honey, I understand."
He said, "Mother, you meet me here tomorrow night, down here at the front of this row; I will see you get a prayer card."
She said, "All right, honey." And she tipped her little self back down through the building. Just in a few minutes I come in, and while the line started, and the great Holy Spirit, present, showing great signs and wonders, what taken place? Discerning the thoughts and minds, foretelling what was and what will be. People were elated, with being healed.

29 And if you realize, my friend, that is the last message before the coming of the Lord! Want to ask you, stopping here on my subject a minute. Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah, and in the days of Lot, so will it be in the coming of the Son of God." Now this time it isn't going to be water; it's going to be fire. They're going to burn this generation like they burnt Sodom and Gomorrah. Now watch the last message to Sodom and Gomorrah.
There's always three classes of people: the true, the elected, the virgin; and the sinner, the unbeliever. That's a believer, a unbeliever, and a make believer. Every city has them, and every church has them: real believers, and unbelievers, and then make-believers. And we're just snowed under with them.
And watch, before Sodom was burned, the angels of the Lord, three of them, came down to Abraham, which was the believer, the elected, which was the real bride, the real virgin that had oil in the lamp. And Lot was that lukewarm. And two of the angels went down to try to get Lot out of there, out of the sinners and the unbelievers.

30 And notice what taken place, watch the nature of this Angel. When they had left, He done a sign to Abraham, which is a very type sign of today. He had his back turned to the tent. And all of us know that they had been waiting for a baby for twenty-five years by a promise of God. And Abraham was a hundred years old and Sarah was ninety at the time. And Sarah was behind the Angel, the Bible said she was. She was in the tent, and the tent was behind the Angel, and the Angel said, "Will I keep from Abraham the things that's going to happen, seeing that he's the heir to the world?" And He said, "I'm going to visit you according to the time of life, the twenty-eight days for Sarah. And you're going to get this baby that you've waited on."

31 And Sarah, behind the Angel, inside the tent, smiled. And the Angel said, "Why did Sarah laugh in the tent?" What kind of a telepathy was that?
And Sarah said, "I didn't laugh."
He said, "Yes, you did." For she was scared.
Remember, that same Angel was God! One, Abraham worshipped. And when He left, he said he talked to God. And the translation there is Elohim, the "Almighty Jehovah," made into a form of a man!
And God was manifested on the earth in a man, Jesus Christ! And done the same things before the destruction of the Jews.
And He's manifested tonight in His church, doing the same thing before the destruction of the Gentiles! His decision has to be the same each time. What He was yesterday, He was today, and will be forever. You notice it?
There it was: the destruction time coming, and sin heaping up on every hand. And God hates sin. And this nation in its condition of rejecting the very things that God has sent.

32 Notice, there was a man one time who needed a rest, and he went down to the sea. He had never seen the sea; he'd heard about it, so he was on his road down. He met an old salt coming back, which is a sailor. And the sailor said to him, "Where goest thou, my good man?"
"Down to the sea, to rest my mind. I've never seen it." He said, "I long to see its great waves, and smell the salt water, and hear the sea gulls."
And the old salt said, "I was born on the sea. I've heard it for forty years. There's nothing thrilling about it, to me." You see, he had just saw it so much, there was nothing thrilled him.
Now, Pentecostal church, and you all, the rest of you, that's what's the matter with you tonight. You've seen so many things of God till it's become too common to you! You take it too lightly, too lightly.

33 And this little woman, back to my story, she goes up in the balcony, I guess, and sat down. When the great Holy Spirit was giving discernment, and all at once it said, "The little lady sitting up in the balcony, on the corner, with the little checkered dress on." Said, "You're praying for your husband, which works in a certain place, and his name is so-and-so. And you're praying for him because he's deaf in one ear, but said, 'Thus saith the Lord,' he's just been healed." She looked down at her watch, see what time it was.
Several hours later when she arrived home, her husband was out the door screaming to the top of his voice. He could hear! Said, "What time did it happen?"
Said, "I was sitting on the stool at just exactly certain-certain time, and my ear come open." It was exactly the same minute the Lord God said it happened.

34 There was a poor, ignorant, colored woman, Negro, sitting over in the aisle, crying, because she couldn't get a prayer card to get up on the platform. And the Holy Spirit moved over to where she was and I saw that light standing over her. And It said to her, "Lady, you're name is so-and-so," by the Holy Spirit; never seen her in my life. It wasn't even me speaking, of course not.
And He told her, said, "You're suffering with sclerosis of the liver, and you have certain-certain disease." And she almost fainted. It was perfect; always has been, and always will be. If it's God, it has to be. I'm forty-nine years old; it's never failed. And it can't fail. If it'd been me, it'd failed the first time. But God cannot fail, because He's God! He can do anything but fail.
And then He told her, said, "But your main subject, you have a sister that's down in Little Rock, Arkansas, in a hospital, a mental institution, been in there ten years, totally insane, butting her head against the wall." And then she just liked to have passed out. Said, "But 'Thus saith the Lord,' she has just come to herself."

35 And the next morning, the matron dismissed her as a perfect case. And she flew to Chicago and give testimony on the platform, the very next night. And Chicago's got just as much whiskey in it tonight as it had before then. Every nightclub is open, the women are still wearing shorts, smoking cigarettes, and the church is wading on in sin just as it always did.
Why? They feel they're secure, because they belong to a church. Because you are an American.
Brother Bosworth said he asked a woman, some time before his going away, "Are you a Christian?"
Why, she felt insulted. She said, "I will give you to understand, I burn a candle every night." What's a candle got to do with it?
And another one said, "Are you a Christian?"
He said, "I will give you to understand, I'm American!" What's that got to do with it? Just about as much as a candle's got.

36 You're not a Christian until you've accepted Christ and been born by the Holy Ghost, a new creature in Christ Jesus. Anything less, you're lost. You might be Pentecostal, baptized forward, backward, this way, that way. You might have sung in the Spirit, spoke in tongues, danced in the Spirit, whatever you might have done; but if you're not truly born of God's eternal Spirit, you're lost! And if you are, the fruits of the Spirit declare what you are: love, joy, peace, long suffering, goodness, meekness, gentleness, patience, in the Holy Spirit.

37 Secure!
Oh, how Babylon thought they were secure; they had everything. They had religion. So there come a time that their women got immoral. Their men got feeling, their preachers, to a place that they were the only ones on the beach; there was no one else but them. And they had a king down there, which was a modern Elvis Presley, a big-time boy, pea-picker Ernie, or some of them---like one of our big great men of today, is so called, in America.
So he throwed a big rock-and-roll party. And he invited all the celebrity to come. And he was going to have it just a modern rock-and-roll.
And so,

38 you see, there's nothing new; it's just got a new name. Old Charlie Barleycorn that you grandmothers, they used to say is an old scarecrow with his hat pulled down, liking to feel that old whiskey and beer. He was old Charlie Barleycorn. Brother, he's got on a tuxedo. He sits in a bumper in every ice box today. He's in class. But he's still the same old devil! Exactly right.
They might not have called it a rock-and-roll, but it was a rock-and-roll. And this big-time boy that they had in that day, he said, "I'm going to throw a big party; I'm going to really have one." So he invited all the soldiers, and he got the best whiskey and the beer that they could find in the nation. And all the women got baby-sitters for their babies. And all of them come up there to dance with these soldiers. They were having a real time. I imagine they had a modern telecast. All the fringe hanging down, a great big garden, in the back of the temple. They put up the big candles, and they had lots of light back there. And, oh, what a modern time they were having.
I'd imagine all those women throwing their feet in the air, and hollering, "Whoopee!" And these soldiers drunk. They were drinking and carousing, as the Bible expressed that they was.

39 And they'll be doing the same this time. What's any different from that and our America today? What about all these nightclubs and so forth? And ninety-five percent of them are so called Christians. That's exactly right.
Some time ago... I haven't the time to tell it. I run into a hotel room. And there were Sunday school teachers and all sitting there, drunk, and couldn't help one another. That's correct.
Now, and when they had this big party... You see, no one could bother them, they had the best scientists in the world. They were protected by walls two-hundred-and-fifty-feet high, and eighty-foot across; guards standing everywhere. The best chariots, the most eating. They had everything, so why should they worry?

40 When people gets like that, when you get a place where you can't have a burden on your soul. You get a preacher in your pulpit that can comb his hair down so tight, till it'll hold his mouth open in front, and say "Ah-men" like a dying calf; and then think you got some kind of a style because he's got a doctor's degree.
I'd rather have my family sitting there, would listen at a preacher didn't know his ABC's, didn't know split peas from coffee. And knowed the Lord as his Saviour, than all the great [unclear words], and their tuxedos and the turned-around collars. Certainly. The devil's always full of that. That's exactly what started it in the beginning, and still on the move.

41 Now I want you to notice, just a little further. As they had this great party, they were dancing and having a big time and drinking their very best of Oertel's 92, or whatever they had in that day; just a showing off, and having their big time, and dancing and everything. They didn't know what was going on in the outside world.
And neither did this nation know what was going on in the outside. What happened at the first war? When everybody down on their knees, saying prayers, and praying and crying, to bring the boys back. And what did you entertain them with when they come back? Beer, whiskey. That's what they were entertained with, to begin with. You ought to have been on your knees, thanking God, yet. "Then keep us out of war, Lord." What a disgrace it is! What a shame in the sight of God!

42 Now notice, instead of the women putting on their clothes and acting like ladies, look the way they did. Instead of men coming back to church and serving God, what are they doing? Out, carousing, running around, drinking, smoking, all kinds of nonsense; care no more about God, and know no more about Him, than a Hottentot would know about an Egyptian knight. And yet they claim to be Christians.
If you're a Christian, you'll live like it. The fruits of the Spirit will follow you. If the life of Christ in you, you'll live the life of Christ. You go to a pumpkin vine, you find pumpkins. You go to a grape vine, you find grapes. Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches."
And we come to the church and what do we find? "My denomination is better than yours!" "We're not cooperating in that meeting." Oh, my. Arguing, fussing, stewing, that's not Christ. Certainly it isn't. But the day we're living in!
And oh, I can see them just having a big time. And after a while, about like some of our radio or television comedians, or movie stars, they wanted to have some fun, crack a joke about the bald-headed preacher or something, you know. Something that they like to make fun of religion.
Like people, them guys come out here, Elvis Presley, and make a little album, or some kind of a religious service, or some kind of religious song, and then go out and say he's religious. Rock-and-roll on one side, and religion on the other side. You can't get bitter and sweet water from the same fountain! It's nothing but a lie of the devil! There's only one difference between Judas Iscariot and Elvis Presley; Judas Iscariot got thirty pieces of silver for selling Christ. Elvis Presley was a Pentecostal boy, he sold out Christ and got a fleet of Cadillacs and a million dollars. That's the difference.

43 Ernie Ford, sing those hymns, and like a face long enough to drink buttermilk in the bottom of a churn, so sanctimonious, and come back around, and put his arms around them women, and those things.
And this Arthur Godfrey, and them, with them dirty army jokes. And you people listen to such stuff as that. And you children take that for your example? Read the Bible and take Christ for your example, and get away from that stuff! This nation is perishing! That's exactly right.
Oh, that's the way they did in Babylon at that junction. Now they had known better, because there was a real prophet of God in that country. They had a revival going on in that country, but not among that class.
So notice what taken place. They said, "Let's tell a little joke now." And this young shyster got out there and said, "Now we will just have some fun out of them holy-rollers. You know, a few years ago, there used to be a lot of holy-rollers through our country," he said. "My father, King Nebuchadnezzar, brought them over here. And let's go get their vessels and have a little fun."

44 Oh, brother, there is a place where you can step across the separating line, between mercy and judgment, and I'm afraid we've done it. Frankly, I know we have, as a nation.
And they went and got the holy vessels of the Lord. What is a vessel of the Lord? What contains the blessings, and that's His church. Ye are vessels of the Lord.
What did they do? Made fun of them. Come out and poured wine and whiskey, or whatever it was, in there. And let's just dramatize this a minute. I can see this modern fellow, Elvis, or what he could compare him with today, and this modern rock-and-roll dance he was doing. And they were the soldiers, and the women back on their laps and everything.
And some baby-sitter at home, taking care of it. Now, they called them concubines, which is a legal prostitute.

45 Today, that's what the nation is filled full of: married and divorced, and married and divorced, and married and divorced. And because they got some kind ... [Gap in the audio]. They call it "pretty frame" or whatever, some kind of a pretty face. Brother, they become idols to the nation!
Why, used to be, we had to send to Paris to find out how to strip our women; now Paris sends over here to copy after us! I will preach on that... No, I won't have time, one of these nights [unclear words]: on the invasion of the United States and overthrow of the government, by the devil; see where we're at. One of the lowest there is in the world, in them things. More divorces in the United States than there is the rest of the world put together! That's right. What is it? It's this age that we're living in.

46 But all the time, right in this, there is a genuine Holy Ghost revival going on! You ought to see it. It's shook before the eyes and they don't see it. But God is just to send it, anyhow.
Now, about time he got the glass up in his hand, I can hear him say, "Say, you know them holy-rollers that we had? Here we are, we're going to drink a toast to them."
Oh, brother, if that ain't a good telecast! Oh, they think that would shake the nation. It would.
But God does some shaking, too. So just as he was ready to drink the toast, the first thing you know, he happened to look, coming down from heaven come a man's hand! And there was a great plaster wall, and the candles... Not out in the dark. But right in the light, a man's hand come down and wrote: "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN," writing on the wall.

47 I can see this modern joker standing there with ... and his eyes popped out back on his cheeks. His knees bumped together. He was all shook up. Oh, standing there looking. The Bible said his knees bumped together. There will be a shaking up, some of these days. All shook up! What was it? There was something happened that he had never seen before. He thought he had all the armies on the outside.
But God looks down from heaven. And that man's hand begin to write.
And I can see the soldiers, just dancing with these women. And men there; and their wives home, walking the floor with a sick baby. Them out there with another woman in their arms; just a modern America having a big time, dancing and hurrahing.
And all at once, something happened! And they begin to look at their leader. And they found out... They looked over on the wall, and the handwriting was on the wall! God had stepped in.

48 So, I can hear the king say, "This must be religious. We will write another album," like some of our singers, and some of our comedians today.
So he sent out and got the bishop, and the archbishop, all of his soothsayers and counselors. He sent and got the district presbyters and all the doctors of divinity. And he brought them all in to read this handwriting.
What happened when they got there? They had never seen anything about speaking in tongues, unknown tongues. They had never been taught anything about it. They knew nothing of it. So how could they have the gift of interpretation? That was at the junction of the first Gentiles. And there was an unknown tongue on the wall. Nobody never heard nothing about it, but it was wrote on the wall in an unknown tongue!
And these preachers said, "We don't know nothing about the supernatural!"

49 That's the way it is today. You talk about divine healing and the power of God, ninety percent of them know no more about it than nothing! All they know is their old cold starchy theology, made up by men. Oh, it's a horrible day we're living in. People are going to perish, and they won't listen to it. There it is. It was wrote on the wall, and they couldn't understand it. So they were all shook up, the whole bunch of them, preachers and all.
But there come the little queen in. What was the queen? She wasn't at their rock-and-roll party. She must have been in a prayer meeting somewhere with the prophets. See, she wasn't there, because the Bible said she come into the party at that time.
And she went up to the king, and she said, "O king!" Now that represents the church: the queen, the bride of the king. Come running in, and said, "O king, don't be all shook up. And don't be alarmed because these doctors of divinity can't read the supernatural. But there is a man that can read it, that's in your kingdom."
And I'm so glad tonight that there is a man, there is a One that understands the supernatural. He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the neglected One that's in our midst. He knows the supernatural.

50 And they sent and got Daniel, the prophet. And he came in, and he said he would read it, for he had the gift of interpretation. So he begin to interpret the unknown tongue, and told the king what was going to happen.
The king thought he was safely secure, but he didn't know that all the time, a godless nation like Russia... Now remember, the prophet was not in Medo-Persia; he was in Babylon. The big rock-and-roll was going on in Babylon, where the revival was going on, too; where the prophet was, and the message was!
But all the time, the Medo-Persians (just as godless and heartless as Russia is) had found a way. They had some scientists too. And they had bypassed the River Euphrates.

51 And today, when we thought we had it all, and right in the midst of our rock-and-roll and boogie-woogie, and our stripteases on the street, publicly. You don't have to go to the theater no more; they're on the street. Stripteases, that's all they are, modern stripteases on the street, dressed like Jezebels, calling themselves Christians. And the handwriting is on the wall!
There's a sputnik going in the sky, and we can't compete with it. Oh, we put up one: It went three feet off the earth and fizzled out. And we can look up tonight and find that a big sputnik is circling the earth! And in Russia, just one drink, extra, of vodka, and we could go to ashes before morning.

52 Billy Graham said some time ago in his broadcast, "There isn't one thing to keep America from becoming a satellite to Russia in any fifteen minutes of time they want to do it." What's the matter? We felt secure, didn't we? But we left God out. We adopted rock-and-roll and all the kind of modern entertainment and stuff, and left God out of the picture.
And the handwriting is on the sky! The Bible said, "There will be signs in the heavens above." We got saucers, flying saucers, that the pentagon can't even think of what they are. Mystic sights in the heavens.
Upon earth, sea roaring, tidal waves, earthquakes in divers places; all kinds of things happening. And the church, lukewarm, they can't even sit through a meeting. What's the matter? It's because the Bible has got to be fulfilled. The handwriting is on the wall, America! And Russia, if they want to... You know they never display their best; we don't, either.

53 But we've let it come to this place with our sin and modern living. And without prayer in the church, cooling off and going away, we've let it get to this place. What if they'd send about...? They've got that ton and a half, or two ton, bomb up there now ... or, satellite. We couldn't touch them with no missile. There ain't a thing we could do about it. They could get a few of those hydrogen bombs, move right over the United States and say, "Surrender, or go to ashes!" They can do it in the next fifteen minutes.
What would we do? Why, the only sensible thing there is to do is surrender! The pentagon would surrender, the nation would surrender. Then what would happen? Right in our drunken stew, like another Pearl Harbor. Great shiploads of ungodly men, Russian soldiers, planes full of them, come right into our homes and grab the women, ravish them, bust their heads of their babies in the street, take over home and kick you out. What you going to do about it?
All because we have failed to see this handwriting on the wall, and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ! Listen, brother, that could happen by morning. And if it's that close, how many here that's read newspapers and understands that that could happen by morning and we couldn't help it, raise up your hand. Sure.

54 Well, if that could happen by morning, and the church goes home before that happens, how close is the coming of the Lord? Oh, you're going to call me a holy-roller anyhow. I feel religious. Listen, the Lord could come at any minute! We're at the junction, the signs, the wonders, the handwriting, the sputniks, signposts, everything, and the church cooling off. We're at the end time.

55 What are you going to do about it, friends? Don't listen to this ... be a fairy tale. That comes from "thus saith the Lord!" Just in closing, I wish to say this: Don't trust in scientists. Scientists come from the wrong side. They did in the beginning; they do yet. The smart and educated comes from the wrong side. It's the humble in heart that comes from God's side. Not those who have Ph.D. I don't say they couldn't be; I don't say that. But the majority of them come from the other side, with a social Gospel.
We believe in an old-fashioned Gospel that saves from sin and makes you live different, and makes you full of joy and happiness and looking for the coming of the Lord. God be merciful to you, Greenville, South Carolina. God be merciful to you! Wake up! You're at the end time. Here it is the handwriting on the... Not on the wall, but in the sky. God said it would be, and there she is. It can happen at any time.

56 Listen, and be quiet now just a minute. I had the privilege of visiting India just recently, where I had my greatest meeting in number. There is approximately there, couldn't get in, around five hundred thousand. For the healing of a blind man, I seen so many come to Christ, it's far beyond the thirty thousand of Africa.
But when I came in, I picked up that newspaper and it said the earthquakes must be over, said, because the birds are returning. I don't have to read the article, I have it in my possession right now, and it reads like this: that about a day before they had the earthquake... In India, they don't have fences out of wire like we do. Their fences are great tall fences made out of rock. Lot of their buildings are made out of stones they pick up and put together.

57 And the little birds go into those crevices in the rocks, and build their nests. And along the great walls and the cattle yards... The cattle, in the afternoon comes and stands around that wall, to be in the shade. And they stand around that wall to fellowship together and get out of the hot sun. But a day... Listen friends. A day before the earthquake taken place, all the little birds flew out and left their nests and went out in the middle of the fields and sat in the bushes. And all the cattle and sheep come out from around the wall and went out in the middle of the fields and stood together to make shade around one another.
What told them it was coming an earthquake? The same God that led them into the ark long ago. And they stayed there for two days, until the earthquakes was over, and then they begin to come back again. They had no education, they could not read or write! But they're creatures of God, and have to depend on Him.

58 I'm not trying to support my ignorance by saying you... I don't say you shouldn't be educated. But education has been the biggest hindrance the Gospel has ever had. Brethren, don't depend on your education, on your society, on your nation, upon your church. Depend on God. He led you, will lead you.
Listen friends, let me tell you today: If God could warn the birds to fly away from danger, out of them walls, could warn the sheep and the cattle to get away from around those walls, they were going to fall; how much more could he do a man or a woman who's made in His image?
Listen friends, let me tell you again, listen to this and be sure that you don't miss it. All you people here, every one you, get away from these modern walls of Babylon! These churches and things that's teaching that the days of miracles is past, and there's no such a things as real heart felt religion. Get away from these modern walls. They are going to fall and crumble! Run quickly into the middle of God's grace and call out to Jesus Christ!
There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,
When sinners plunge beneath the flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.

59 Would you stand to your feet just a minute? O God, be merciful. Run people, hurry, hurry, hurry, get to Christ as quick as you can. Get away from these modern walls of this formalism. Get into the middle of God's grace, quickly. All you Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Nazarene, Pilgrim Holiness, Catholic, all of you, get away from these modern church walls! You feel like you're secure because it's a great church. Nothing against it, but, brother, unless you are found in His grace, covered with His goodness and His power, what good will it do you?
I feel led to say this just before closing, while we bow our heads just a minute. Recently... No one moving, please.

60 Recently, there was a man, about hundred years ago, by the name of Danny Greenfield, modern American evangelist. He dreamed that he died. And when he did, he thought he went up to Heaven. He got to the door. While he was there at the door, the caretaker come out and said, "Who are you that approaches this holy place?"
Said, "I'm Danny Greenfield, the American evangelist."
Said, "I will see, sir, if your name is on the book." And he looked on the book. There was no name like that. He went out and said, "Sir, your name is not on this book. You have to depart from the gate."
He said, "Sir, I'm an evangelist."
Said, "I can't help who you were." Said, "I only take care of these books, and your name is not on the book."
Said, "What can I do?"
Said, "You might appeal your case to the great white throne judgment."
He said, "If that's all I can do, I will do it."

61 And said he begin to move through space. And he went faster and faster, and then he begin to slow up when he come into light. The light wasn't coming from no certain place. But when he got right in the center of it, he stopped. Said, "Oh, what a place to be!" And he heard a great voice, said, "Daniel Greenfield, why comest thou unto My judgment?'"
He said, "I was rejected at the gate, and the only thing I could do, Sir, was to appeal my case here to You."
Said, "All right, you'll be judged by My law." He said, "Daniel Greenfield, did you ever tell a lie?"

62 Said, "I thought I had been a truthful man, but I knowed that there had been some things I'd told wasn't true." Said, "Yes, Lord, I had lied."
He said, "Did you ever steal, Daniel Greenfield?"
He said, "If anything I thought I'd been, would have been honest." But said, "In the presence of that light, I remembered a lot of little deals that I pulled that were shady."
Now look, friend, right now here on earth, the way you feel now, you might think it's all right. But in the presence of that light some day, there'll be a lot of things that you think is all right now will be shady then.
He said, "Yes, Lord, I stole."
He said, "Daniel Greenfield, My law requires perfection! Was you perfect, Daniel Greenfield?"
He said, "No, Lord, I wasn't perfect."
He said he was listening to hear that great voice that would say, "Depart from Me, you horrible person."

63 And said he heard, then, the sweetest voice he ever heard. No mother's voice is like that one. And he turned to his right side to look; he said he saw the sweetest face he'd ever seen. No mother's face looked like that one. And said it walked close to him, put His arm around him and He said, "Father, it is true that Daniel Greenfield wasn't perfect in his life while he was on earth. But there's one thing that Daniel Greenfield did do when he was on earth: he stood for Me. So here, while he's here, I will stand for him."
I wonder tonight, friends, if you're depending on your church to stand for you at that day, or you're depending on some little experience you've had to stand for you in that day, who would stand for you? Do you know Him? Would He stand for you? You make your stand for Him now, He will make His stand for you then.

64 Now with your heads bowed, and I pray that you're sincere. All in here would like to say, "Dear God, I'm on my feet tonight because I'm making a stand for You. And I want You to stand for me at that day. I tried to be a decent woman or a decent man, boy or girl, but I really want You to stand for me, Lord. I now raise my hand as a sign that I want You to stand for me while I'm standing for You."
Will you put up your hand? God bless you, all over the building, literally. Five or six hundred, maybe more than that, that wants Christ to stand for them. You make your stand, Christ will make His that day. That sweet, kind voice, when the struggle, you're pressing a dying pillow and the pulse is ceasing, and the cold things, you're cooling off, your hands, and the struggle is in your throat, and the doctor walk away and shake his head. There'll be someone make a stand, to stand for you if you really mean it.
Bow your heads. Just in a moment, I'm going to ask Joseph to come here and lead us in prayer. While you have your head bowed, really mean it, with all your heart. Pray, while I turn the service to Brother Joseph Boze.